dmulally

Hi Flash, I finally got to test drive my finished commer van. I don't want to pull focus so if you wanna chat about the mods I did that worked and didnt work feel free to shoot me a PM. Cheers Damo

I managed to chat to a copper last night on the way home and he said if you don't give them a reason to pull you over it won't be an issue. Seems fair enough.

Banner on the VTNZ site says they shut yesterday. NZTA just say "Don't contact us". I assume any mechanics open would be for maintaining essential services fleet. Of which my Commer Van is essentially a pain in my arse and is due on the 11th of April.

So does anybody know what the story with WOF's are for the next month? I have three vehicles due and my local VTNZ where I take my truck has shut up shop

You had me at pedo! Sent you a flirty pm.

Lovely ute. I have a 66 C20 that I'm getting close to finishing off but I keep having drama after drama with the gearbox. Where did you get your rear deck cover from? I need one for mine and was going to have the tie down straps one but yours looks so much cleaner.

LVV had me reset my leaf springs in the rear which had it sitting high. So to get it down low I then had to change the tyre profile to rubber bands. Which then needed a diff ratio change to get it comfortable again. I still think it is too tall but good thing about the chev is that there are loads of ratios. My old commer van was V8 and 5 speed. Loved it. As an aside, I looked at the Nissan Vanette as it had cable linkages. Is your radiator in the dog box? If so youre welcome to ping me offline so I can tell you how I go with my various upgrades and scoops etc. If it is up front like the beddy then youre in luck!

Nice van! I've just finished certing my commer van with a lexus 6 speed, rapier engine and chev diff. Massive PITA now it is all said and done. If doing again I would go for a holden 6 and auto box and change the diff/ratio to something taller. The biggest pain was getting the linkages right for the lexus shifter. It took a LOT of fine tuning but now it is done, it can run off the clock. Only thing that needs work is the cooling system. Over 55mph it starts warming up as the air passes below it rather than up into the radiator in the dog box. Probably because I lowered it too much. I'll work on a scoop and aux radiator etc shortly. At 55mph it is sweet though. Good luck!

I put my DC EWP in the front of the Imp and it was fine. I routed the radiator coolant pipes through the body of the imp where the heater lines went rather than over the floor. To this day the worst job I have ever completed on any car. In regards to the lotus 7 overheating I had the same problem on my old 4age PRB. Through a combo of angling the front number plate to channel airflow up (bottom of which was at sump height so if I scraped on a speed bump I reversed out of there), changing to a SPAL fan from the repco cheapie electric fan, and redline water wetter I got it down from 110 degrees in traffic to around 90.

All good

That is what I thought but apparently I need a replacement one if I cannot find it. Which I cannot. Carjam says what it is here: https://www.carjam.co.nz/car/?plate=bbq488&fbclid=IwAR2q5IfEEX5J1-MyxtPaBPMoFgXY2lnr-erYAs4I6vSZzoNCDV82Vk3dnt4 And going to the NZTA site is as erotic as it is helpful and seems to be aimed at repairers who can access their system.

Hi All, I'm struggling to find the VIN on my Commer Van. The engineer needs a pic of it for LVV cert. I can find it on carjam and I can find the chassis and body number but the VIN is eluding me thus far. If it turns out I can't find it, am I going to have to drag it down to VINZ? Lord help me...

Welding stuff on once powdercoated is a pain. I'd just go wire wheel and POR-15. Don't go out of your way to make the chassis super clean. POR stands for Paint Over Rust so it adheres better in my experience. On clean steel I have had it flake off. Even when keyed.

Sounds like it needed a bit of scuffing first.

I guess so but you'd be sanding for aaaages afterwards and then buffing